AN AMERICAN HOTEL.

37

the wide streets, neither were there any horses or dogs, or even the face of a Christian peeping through the window-blinds to look at the strangers. It was true it was Sunday, and Sunday is kept with great decorum and solemnity in New England, and, moreover, we had arrived during the period when divine service was being performed; but even this circumstance seemed scarcely sufficient to account for the appalling stillness which reigned over the place.

After walking for about a quarter of an hour through this peopled solitude, (for we concluded, perhaps rather rashly, that there must be humans, as the Americans call them, inside the houses,) we arrived at the hoe-tel. It was a large, shambling, red brick building, and could boast of a time worn look, which in this country is a rare sight. The sign which swung before it, high in air, was a very amusing one; it represented a sober, middle-aged gentleman, invested with a three-cornered hat, an English general officer's uniform, and a great look of English dignity and contempt for the rest of the world. The costume was that of the last century, and excited my curiosity so much, that I insisted on a close examination of the antiquarian treasure. With no inconsiderable difficulty I contrived to discover some nearly effaced characters, purporting that the military hero was no less a man than General Wolf himself! After making out this

38

AMERICAN HOTEL ECCENTRICITIES.

transient mention of a dubious name,' I raised my eyes a little higher, and lo! above the warrior's head I saw inscribed in large letters, Mérrimac Hôtel.' I confess that I was greatly relieved at not finding the name of some blustering Yankee appended to any portrait-however rough and unsightly-of one of our greatest heroes.

On entering, we found the interior arrangements no less eccentric than the outside. Unlike any other place of the kind I had ever been in, a silence as of the grave pervaded every part of the house. I was shown by an apparently speechless woman into a large, square, venerable - looking room, through which the hot sun glared fiercely, and the accumulated dust of years came out to sport in its beams. The air was redolent of stale and pent-up tobacco smoke, and the domestic flies were thronging the windows, and indeed all parts of the room in such prodigious quantities, and hummed and buzzed so noisily in the dust and sun, that I soon found their companionship unbearable, and went out to reconnoitre. After some time, having lost my way more than once in intricate and most mysterious passages, I was fortunate enough. to 'chance upon' a help. Not that I was either much happier or wiser than before, after my short conference with the dignified damsel I accosted, for when (knowing the impossibility of procuring a private meal) I asked her when ordinary

AMERICAN MANNERS.

39

dinner would be ready, she replied with, Right away, I expect.' I was as much in the dark as if she had answered my question in Hebrew. After making this oracular reply, the 'young lady' disappeared, and I was left with no other resource but to return once more to my flies,-verily their name was Legion. Had I known at that time that right away,' in the new and improved (?) version of our language which is current in America, signifies directly,' I should not have been without some hopes of being speedily summoned from my retreat; it would appear, however, that in this case my informant had spoken unadvisedly, for another half-hour went by before the welcome, though stunning sound of the gong was heard.

But how shall I describe that dinner!-how bring before you the wonders of that silent banquet; or how picture to you the entrance of the guests, who, one after another, dropped quietly into their places, with a gravity and decorum I never saw equalled; or the food itself, which even to a hungry woman, (and I was hungry,) was almost too fat and coarse to swallow! Not a word was spoken during the repast, and as silence ist infectious, so we also naturally attuned our voices to whispers, and at last refrained from speaking altogether. The dinner consisted of very fat boiled pork, surrounded by, and adorned with Haricot beans, as infallible a Sunday dish in New England,

40

A TEMPERANCE ORDINARY.

as roast beef is in Old ditto. There was beef, but it was greasy; and poultry, but it was tough; and the afterpiece was a pleasant wind up, in the shape of an enormous pudding, composed of Indian corn and molasses. Squash made its appearance in various forms; and altogether, though the food was not recherché, there was plenty and to spare. An attenuated, pale-faced young lady, who appeared to think, that waiting upon us at all was a great act of condescension on her part, walked slowly round the table at stated intervals, with a water-jug in her hand, from which she replenished the goblets of the guests. No one drank either wine or spirits, though some ventured to commit the excess of washing down their platefuls of fat pork, with brimming glasses of milk! I longed greatly for a glass of wine and water after the fatigues of the journey, but I felt it would never do, to take such a strong measure in this—the head quarters of the Temperance Society. The meal, plentiful as it was, and ample as was the justice done to its varied merits, did not take long in the discussion. No one paid his neighbour the compliment of waiting for him, but no sooner had a gentleman or lady had enough,' than he or she got up without any ceremony, and left the room. This was my first initiation into the mysteries of an American table-d'hôte, and very original I thought it, I can assure you.

BEAUTIFUL SCENERY.

41

Well, sir, I've chartered a carriage,' shouted out, at last, the loud cheerful voice of our friend, as he stood at the hotel door-I've chartered a carriage, to take us all on to Indian Hill, bag and baggage.' And there in fact was the carriage; a heavy lumbering thing, but drawn by two little active wiry horses, who, as we soon found, could take us along at a very fair pace. Up little hills, and down equally diminutive dales, we ambled along for rather more than an hour. The scenery

improved in beauty and variety as we progressed; the granite blocks were larger and more frequent, and the trees were higher, and of thicker growth. I began even to have some faint idea of the extreme beauty of an American forest in the autumn. I saw the rich crimson of the maple, and the bright golden tints of the hiccory, mingled with the browns and lingering greens of the other children of the forest, and the brilliant sunset glowing over all:

Earth and sky one blaze of glory.

The country seemed to be very thickly populated; and, moreover, there was not a poor-looking house to be seen; all was prosperous and comfortable-looking. What a change from those early days, when the pilgrim fathers of old first moored their bark on the wild New England shore !' Still, even as then, do the breaking waves dash high,' and the 'rocking pines of the forest roar'